Knowledge base
No sound when playing DVDs in The Grid 2
Some customers are reporting that they do not get sound when playing DVDs in The Grid 2’s DVD player workspace.
The first thing to check is that you can play DVDs in Windows Media Player. The Grid 2 uses Windows Media Player (WMP) for DVD playback, so if you cannot play DVDs in WMP then The Grid 2 will not be able to play them either.
If you can play DVDs with sound in WMP, but when you play them in The Grid 2 there is no sound, then this Sensory Answer explains how to fix this problem.
- You need to install a different video decoder (this is the software that decodes the video information from the DVD).
- Make sure that The Grid 2, Windows Media Player and Windows Media Centre are not running before you start.
- Download a program from Microsoft called Windows XP Video Decoder Checkup Utility (this also works in WIndows Vista and Windows 7). You can download it here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=de1491ac-0ab6-4990-943d-627e6ade9fcb&displaylang=en
- After running the setup program, you can run it from the Start Menu. This program will install the codecs available on your system. You will probably only have the “Microsoft DTV-DVD Video Decoder” installed.
- Now close the Checkup Utility.
- The next step is to download an alternative video decoder. There is a free decoder called DScaler, which is available here:
http://www.free-codecs.com/dscaler_mpeg_filters_download.htm
- Download this zip file, then run the setup program from inside the zip file.
- Once this has installed, run the Checkup Utility again. You are going to make changes to the system, so you need to run the utility as administrator (to do this, right click on the start menu item and select Run as Administrator).
- You should now have two decoders listed. Select the DScaler Mpeg2 Video Decoder, and then click on Set as Preferred. You will get a warning about synchronisation features, which you can ignore (click Yes).
You should now hear sound when playing DVDs in The Grid 2
